The Insurance Adjuster Called. What Do I Say?
The friendliest phone call you'll ever regret, decoded by a lawyer who talks to adjusters for a living — what they're trained to get from you, and the exact words to use instead.
Before you need any of this: print the free South Carolina accident checklist and keep it in your glovebox.
First, the Answer: Say Almost Nothing, Politely
The other driver's insurance company often calls within days of the crash — sometimes before your own tow bill arrives, sometimes while you're still in a hospital bed. If that phone is ringing right now, here's the whole playbook in one paragraph: be courteous, confirm only the bare facts — your name, the date, the location, the vehicles — decline to be recorded, say nothing about your injuries or who was at fault, write down the adjuster's name, company, direct line, and claim number, and end the call. Everything below is the why, and the exact wording.
One distinction before anything else, because it changes every rule that follows: there are two insurance companies that may call you, and they are not the same conversation. Your own insurer is a company you have a contract with, and that contract comes with duties. The at-fault driver's insurer is a company you owe precisely nothing. Most of this article is about the second caller. I'll flag where the rules differ for the first.
What the Adjuster on the Other End Is Trained to Do
Let me be fair to the person calling you, because fairness makes the warning more useful, not less. The adjuster is not a villain. They're a trained professional doing exactly the job they were hired to do — and that job is protecting their policyholder and their employer's money. Their duties run in that direction, not yours. You are not their customer. You are the claim. Once you see the call through that lens, every technique below makes perfect sense.
1. The recorded statement
The adjuster will ask, early and casually, whether they can record the call — "just so I don't have to take notes." What a recorded statement really does is freeze your account of the crash at the moment you understand it least: days after impact, possibly concussed, possibly medicated, before a doctor has finished diagnosing you and before you've seen the police report. The questions sound conversational and are anything but. "How fast would you say you were going?" invites a guess that becomes your sworn-to number forever. "You're feeling okay today?" produces a cheerful "I'm fine" that resurfaces months later, in writing, next to your surgeon's bill. If your testimony ever differs from that recording — because your memory settled, or your diagnosis arrived — the difference itself becomes the weapon. You have no obligation to give the at-fault carrier a recorded statement, and I've never once seen giving one help the injured person.
2. The quick check
Some claims draw an early settlement offer — occasionally within the first week or two, before anyone can possibly know what your medical picture looks like. The check is real. So is the document stapled to it: a release, which permanently ends your claim in exchange for the amount on the check. Every injury that hasn't been diagnosed yet — the disc herniation that announces itself in week six, the shoulder that turns out to need surgery — is included in what you're signing away. Early offers are priced on a simple bet: that you don't yet know what your claim is worth, and that the stack of bills on your counter will do the negotiating for them. If a number is already sitting on your table, run it through the checklist in my full decision guide first: Should I Accept the First Settlement Offer?
3. The medical authorization
At some point a form arrives asking you to authorize the release of your medical records. Read the scope line. What insurers frequently send is a blanket authorization — all providers, all records, no date limits — when the claim only requires records related to this crash. A blanket authorization is a fishing license: every old complaint of back pain, every prior injury, every unrelated diagnosis becomes raw material for the argument that you were already hurt before their driver ever met you. When records are genuinely needed, they can be requested in a targeted way. That's how I send them. The form deserves its own article, and it has one: The Insurance Company Wants My Medical Records. Should I Sign?
4. The friendliness
This one isn't a document, but it's the technique that makes the other three work. Adjusters are trained in rapport, and most are genuinely pleasant people besides. The call will feel like help — someone finally taking charge, asking how you're doing, wanting to "get this resolved for you quickly." Warmth lowers your guard; a lowered guard talks. It is entirely possible for the person on the phone to be sincerely nice and for the institution behind them to be adverse to you. Both things are true on every one of these calls.
"Every client gets my personal cell number. Call or text me directly — you'll never chase a case manager."
Clients hear back from me the same day — and for emergencies, anytime.
— Thomas Spiro Conits
Exactly What to Say — Word for Word
You don't need to be clever or combative. You need five sentences:
- "Yes, I was involved in the accident on [date] at [location]." Bare facts only — the things already on the police report.
- "I'm not giving a recorded statement." No reason required. If pressed: "That's my answer." You will not be the first person to say it to them that day.
- "I'm still being treated, so I'm not going to discuss my injuries." This is the truthful, complete answer even if you feel okay — plenty of serious injuries take weeks to declare themselves.
- "Can I get your name, company, direct number, and the claim number?" Write it all down. This is the one part of the call that genuinely helps you.
- "My attorney will be in touch." Then end the call. Politely. Done.
And what never to say
- "I'm fine." The reflexive Southern answer to "how are you?" reads very differently in a claim file than it does in a grocery store.
- Guesses. Speed, distance, seconds, timing — if you don't know, "I don't know" is a complete and correct answer. An estimate offered to be helpful becomes a fact offered under pressure.
- Apologies or fault talk. "I'm sorry" is human decency at a crash scene and an admission exhibit on a recording. Fault in South Carolina is a legal conclusion built from evidence — a percentage game with a 51% cliff — and it is not yours to hand over on a phone call.
- Your medical history. Prior injuries, old conditions, your primary doctor's name. All of it fuels the pre-existing-injury argument, and none of it is owed on this call.
- "Yes" to anything. Not to the recording, not to an authorization "we'll email over," not to a number. Agreement is the only thing that can hurt you here, so decline all of it.
Politeness Is Not Obligation
Here's the fact that surprises almost everyone I sit down with: no South Carolina law requires you to talk to the other driver's insurance company at all. Not a statement, not a recorded statement, not a phone call. The adjuster's authority over you is exactly zero. They can ask; you can decline; that is the entire legal relationship. The pressure you feel to cooperate is manners — and manners, which I'm all for, don't require handing an adverse company the rope.
Your own insurance company is the exception, and it's a real one. Your policy is a contract, and nearly every auto policy contains a cooperation clause — you agreed to report crashes and assist your insurer when you bought the coverage. You should report the crash promptly, and honestly. But a duty to cooperate is not a duty to do it alone, unprepared, or on tape before you've talked to a lawyer. I prepare clients for that call too, and when they'd rather I do the talking, I do.
There's one piece of paperwork with an actual clock on it: the officer at the scene likely handed you South Carolina's FR-10 insurance-verification form. It has to reach your insurer within 15 days of the crash so coverage can be verified to the DMV — miss it, and the DMV can treat your vehicle as uninsured, which puts your license and registration at risk. When a client hires me, that form is handled the same day, along with everything else in the folder they hand me.
When to Hand It to Me — and What That Looks Like
Ideally, before you've said a word to the at-fault carrier. Practically, the moment any of these happens: a recorded statement request, a medical authorization in your inbox, a settlement figure floated in week one, any hint that they're blaming you, or any injury that sent you to a doctor. Those are the points where a claim starts being shaped — by someone, on some side. I'd rather it be shaped from your side. Most of my practice is car accident claims exactly like this, along with the truck crash cases where the carrier's response team is working the file the same day.
And here's the part that's different about hiring me: I come to you — kitchen table, front porch, hospital room. I'm a solo lawyer and that's the whole model; I wrote about why most firms won't do it. At that first sit-down, we do the adjuster prep in person: I go through what's been said so far, we sort what's owed from what's optional, and I take over every insurance contact from that hour forward. Once my letter of representation goes out, the adjuster calls my desk, not your recovery. The consultation is free, at your table or mine, and the fee if you hire me is contingency: no fee unless we win. Call or text (864) 777-1000 — before you call the adjuster back.
If you can't come to me, I'll come to you.
I personally drive to clients' homes across Greenville and the surrounding counties — hospital rooms and kitchen tables included. You were just hurt; the last thing you need is a trip to a law office.
— Thomas Spiro Conits
Adjuster Call FAQs
Do I have to talk to the other driver’s insurance company at all?
No. There is no South Carolina law that requires you to give the at-fault driver’s insurer a statement — recorded or otherwise. Your contractual duties run to your own insurance company under your own policy, not to theirs. You can decline their calls entirely, and once you hire me, you should: they call me instead.
I already gave a recorded statement. Have I ruined my case?
Almost certainly not. A recorded statement is a problem to manage, not a case-ender. What matters now is that it not be compounded — no second statement, no signed authorizations, no release. Call me, tell me exactly what was asked and answered as best you remember, and I’ll build the case with that on the board.
Should I talk to my own insurance company?
Yes — you should report the crash promptly, and your own policy almost certainly contains a cooperation clause that requires you to. But a duty to cooperate is not a duty to do it alone, unprepared, on their schedule. I prepare clients before that conversation too, and I handle the paperwork around it, including South Carolina’s FR-10 insurance-verification form and its 15-day clock.
The adjuster offered me money before I even asked. Should I take it?
Not before you understand what you’d be signing. Early offers come attached to a release, and a release ends your claim permanently — including for injuries that haven’t been diagnosed yet. If the offer is genuinely fair, it will still be fair after a free consultation. In my experience, offers made in week one are priced on the insurer’s hope that you don’t know what the claim is worth.
What if the adjuster keeps calling after I’ve said no?
You’re allowed to stop answering. Nothing requires you to pick up, and repetition is a tactic, not a summons. The cleanest fix is representation: once I take your case, I send a letter of representation and the calls come to my desk, not your recovery. That’s usually the day the phone goes quiet.
Will hiring a lawyer slow my settlement down?
The honest answer: a represented claim often takes longer than a week-one quick settlement — because it resolves for what the case is actually worth, and that usually can’t be known until your doctors can say how hurt you really are. What a lawyer should never cost you is momentum: I start evidence preservation and record requests the week I’m hired, so the case is ready the moment your treatment picture is.
Before you call the adjuster back, call me.
Free consultation. No fee unless we win. If getting to an office is hard right now, Tom will come to you.
Office: 100 Williams St, Greenville, SC 29601 · (864) 777-1000